Zubair Akhter PhD
Exploring Impossibilities
PROJECTS
Research Thrust
Lockheed Martin Corporation, USA
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), also known as autonomous drones, are being utilized for a variety of applications such as disaster management, search and rescue, surveillance, and remote monitoring. The antenna, being the most important part of that wireless link, must be designed such that it seamlessly integrates with the drone without affecting its flight. This means the antenna must be thin, lightweight, conformal, and provide wide coverage. To provide a plug-and-play solution, the antenna’s performance must not be deteriorated due to the UAV mounting. Further, to cater for high data rate applications, a large bandwidth is required, which is difficult to achieve with thin substrates. In this project, a thin, conformal antenna system is designed and developed for a long-range HD video transmission where the antenna can be attached to the drone’s body on demand like a sticker. Additionally, antennas radiation pattern diversity is useful to extend the communication range and a dual-band feature could be used to maintain the communication in presence of interference or jammers.
Ericsson
The electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation of mm-Wave 5G communication suffers from high atmospheric attenuation and thus, the communication coverage is reduced to a line-of-sight (LOS) and can be blocked by obstacles. To establish a secondary LOS when the direct path is not available, the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) can be utilized which can redirect the reflected wave using its sub-wavelength periodic tunable EM resonators. These RIS’s can be massively attached to the building walls, windows, and form reconfigurable propagation paths in the environment. The project aims at solving the design and realization challenges for such as large reflection bandwidth, precise 180∘ phase shift control, and proper feed network design.
ANDOC GAS Research Center, UAE
Black powder (BP) is one of the most common contaminants in steel pipes used for the transportation of gas. It is an amalgam of iron sulfides, oxides, and carbonates. It is reported to originate from the milling of pipes, early detection of BP is incumbent to ensure the integrity of gas pipelines and to avoid catastrophe. In this project, a microwave sensing technology has been developed that utilizes a microwave probing mechanism to detect and monitoring of solid contaminants (BP) inside the natural gas pipelines.
Department of Science and Technology, INDIA
In this project, a novel concept in real-time 2D microwave imaging for security applications is introduced where the identification of the objects is made through both the geometrical and electrical properties. A calibration-independent, position insensitive purely analytical method in the time domain is proposed to retrieve the permittivity, conductivity, and thickness of various materials. The requirement of reference measurement required for time-domain analysis is also removed in the proposed approach. A versatile dual-domain microwave imaging method is proposed to take advantage of the imaging schemes in both the domains to facilitate real-time online monitoring of the scene using a non-iterative procedure requiring a less mathematical operation, which makes it suitable for a low-cost solution related to homeland security applications.
My Mentees Say
Ibrahim Alsayoud
Second Prize (SSI-2021)
It is my pleasure to provide this recommendation for Dr. Zubair Akhter. He was my mentor on SSI program in KAUST. He helped me a lot over the short period of two months. He provided guidance and knowledge related to mm-wave antenna design that accelerated my work. In general Dr. Zubair is someone who you can depend on to support you emotionally and technically.
Jaime Sanchez Ruiz
First Prize (MSWC-2022)
Zubair Akhter was my mentor during my time in the Microelectronics Winter Camp 2022 at KAUST. He monitored my progress while explaining to me theoretical concepts related to the project that we were working on. During my stay at KAUST, he also introduced me to different and novel applications for microwave resonance-based technology with patience and creative explanations.
Without any hesitation, I recommend Zubair's mentoring, because he behaved with respect and gave considerable attention to me answering all of my questions related to the project.
Monika Rasz
First Prize (MSWC-2022)
Zubair Akhter was my mentor during my time in the Microelectronics Winter Camp 2022. We worked on developing a battery-less tag for detecting food adulteration in a non-contact and non-invasive way. We won the first prize for our project where students from various international universities participated.
Abdullah Hamiduddin
Second Prize (SSI--2022)
Zubair is an excellent mentor who worked with me during the SSI program at KAUST. He helped guide me through the journey, along with providing advice and practical guidance for my future endeavors. Under his supervision, I completed our antenna design project and was able to gain valuable professional experience, thanks to his knowledge and experience. I’m fortunate to have had the time I did with him, and I will always recommend Zubair to any one interested in working with antennas.